Militants in disarray after French air strikes

ANSAR Dine fighters are believed to have left Kidal for desert and mountain hideouts

Three weeks of French targeted air strikes in Northern Mali have left the Islamist militants “in disarray”, France’s defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said.

Le Drian said the jihadists had now scattered, marking a “turning-point” in France’s intervention.

His comments come as the French troops continue to secure Kidal. The town is the last stronghold of the fleeing militants.

France is preparing to hand over towns it has captured to an African force, which has begun to deploy to Mali.

So far, about 2,000 African soldiers, mainly from Chad and Niger, are believed to be on the ground.

It will be the job of the African Union-backed force, the International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA), to root out the al-Qaeda-linked insurgents that have fled further North.

At least two Malian soldiers have been killed when their vehicle hit a landmine Southwest of Gao, officials said.

Le Drian said that some Malian militants who had been on a “military adventure have returned home.”

Others had made a “tactical withdrawal to the Adrar des Ifoghas”, the mountainous region East of Kidal, covering 250,000 square kilometer (about 96,525 squre miles), he said.

Although France has reached a a turning-point, the minister said it did not mean that “the military risks and the fighting has ended.” He pledged the support of his home country for the idea of sending a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force to Mali.

Bristish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reporter Christian Fraser in Paris said the UN Security Council had previously been uncomfortable with the deployment of a force under a UN mandate, but the support is growing.

Envoys believe it would be easier to monitor and prevent human rights abuses if the UN could pick and choose which national contingents to use, Fraser said.

French army spokesman in Bamako Lieutenant-Colonel Emmanuel Dosseur, told the BBC French Service that France’s special forces were in Kidal, but the majority of troops were still at the airport.

A heavy sandstorm that hampered operations on Wednesday was starting to clear and troops may soon be deployed, he said.

Haminy Maiga, who heads the regional assembly in Kidal, said he had witnessed no fighting as French forces entered and two helicopters were patrolling overhead.

Jean-Yves Le Drian adjudged the French intervention as successful.

The secular National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) said its fighters would support the French but would not allow the return of the Malian army, which it accused of “crimes against the civilian population”.